With just over a semester to go until the start of 2024, the year constitutionally established for the first district elections in Mozambique, the government and the opposition are already exchanging barbs, raising the tone of the political tension that has characterized electoral periods in the country.

At issue is the suspicion that the process is being postponed, which, according to politicians and analysts, gained further momentum last Wednesday with the approval in parliament of a legal revision that reduces the time for the President of the Republic to set the elections.

RENAMO leader Ossufo Momade told a press conference on Monday that the approval of the amendment, in a session that only included FRELIMO MPs, is the blow that was needed to confirm what we already have.

"The approval that FRELIMO gave last week is a clear sign that they want to postpone the district elections, change the constitution and accommodate a third term for Mr. Filipe Nyusi," said the RENAMO leader, quoted by VOA.

For the country's second largest opposition party, everything that is being plotted is a blow to democracy and to the understandings that resulted in the final peace agreement.

Political fantasy

"What FRELIMO is doing is not to harm RENAMO, it is an attack on the Constitution and democratic values that cost Mozambicans so much to conquer," said Momade, calling for a general mobilization to stop what he called a descent into dictatorship.

FRELIMO believes that the opposition's demonstrations are nothing more than the interpretations of people who see ghosts where there are none.

"Everything that is being done is purely and simply to broaden the debate, so that all segments of society can have the opportunity to contribute to the debate on the viability or otherwise of district elections," said António Niquice, a member of the FRELIMO parliamentary group.

It should be noted that before the approval of last week's amendment, which reduced the minimum period for setting the election date from 18 to 14 months, Filipe Nyusi had until next June to schedule the district elections.

With the reduction now in place, the decision should be made by October.